Eric Bell Promoted To Associate Head Coach

Bell enters his third season with the Seminole Soccer program in 2008.

6/3/08

Tallahassee, Fla. – Florida State women’s soccer head coach Mark Krikorian announced the promotion of assistant coach Eric Bell to associate head coach. Bell is entering his third season with the Seminole soccer program and will continue to serve as the recruiting coordinator at Florida State.



In his first two seasons in Tallahassee, Bell has helped guide the Seminoles to back-to-back College Cup appearances including a berth in the school’s first national championship game last year. As recruiting coordinator, Bell made school history as the 2007 recruiting class achieved its highest ranking at number two by Soccer Buzz. The mark also stood as the top spot in the Southeast Region. Of the 11 freshman in last year’s class, five ranked in the top 150 by Soccer Buzz while Erin McNulty and Sanna Talonen ranked among the nation’s top international recruits.



Bell and the Seminoles topped that mark in 2008 as Soccer Buzz awarded Florida State with the top recruiting class in the nation. The publication ranked six freshmen in the top 40 as five were recently named PARADE All-Americans.



“Eric has done an outstanding job since arriving here at Florida State,” said head coach Mark Krikorian. “He is a tireless worker and certainly one of the top young coaches in the country. It is comforting for me to have two outstanding assistants in Eric and Paul, knowing that both of them have exceptional leadership qualities and are great students of the game.”



Last year’s freshman class contributed to the highest scoring season in school history in 2007 as the Seminoles tallied 233 points on 81 goals and 71 assists. The mark shattered the previous record of 188 points (65 goals, 58 assists) set in 2005. Four freshman including Sanna Talonen, Amanda DaCosta, Marissa Kazbour and Rachel Lim finished in the top 8 on the team in scoring while Talonen and DaCosta were named National Freshman of the Year by Soccer America and Soccer Buzz, respectively. The freshmen class contributed to 37 percent of the total scoring responsible for 88 of the 233 points.



Defensively, Erin McNulty set a trio of freshman single-season records for wins (18), shutouts (8.0) and goals against average (0.94) as the Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada native started all 27 games in goal last season.



Prior to arriving in Tallahassee, Bell served as an assistant coach for the women’s soccer programs at Illinois (2002-05) and Minnesota (2001) and the men’s and women’s programs at Ashland University in Ohio (1997-2000). He took over the head coaching duties at Indiana University of Pennsylvania for one season in 2000.